Let’s be honest with ourselves: President Obama’s unilateral, dictatorial action on immigration is not to benefit illegals. It’s to punish American voters for rejecting him.

This is personal.

In two years, the next American president will let this and many other Obama executive orders expire. Executive orders are not law. They expire with the term of the president who signed them. No future president is bound to renew them. And the next president won’t.

So life for the illegals will get worse. Instead of wrongfully believe they’ve been denied something, they’ll correctly feel they’ve lost something. They’ll feel vulnerable and abandoned. All because Obama needed to “get even” with the American people.

Republicans were supposed to lose governor seats. Instead, they picked up nine or ten. That’s huge, because governors become presidents. Executive leadership is different from coalition “leadership,” and governors are real executives. Look for the GOP’s gubernatorial wins to play big roles in 2016 and 2020.

This Morning (New York Times):

Democrats seem to have their best shot in Florida, where the state’s former Republican governor, Charlie Crist, is running as a Democrat against the Republican incumbent, Rick Scott. The polls also show up-in-the-air races in Michigan and Wisconsin, where the Republican incumbents, Rick Snyder and Scott Walker, appear to hold nominal leads.

If the Republicans lose one or two of these races, it will complicate what might otherwise be an impressive performance for them in governors’ contests nationwide. Republican governors in competitive states have no business losing in what should be a good year for the party.

Tonight (Reuters):

Republican governors in Florida, Kansas, Michigan and Wisconsin fended off Democratic challengers on Tuesday in four hard-fought contests that proved wrong predictions of punishment for incumbents over an uneven economy and fiscal problems.

Republicans also won back the governorships in three Democratic strongholds, Massachusetts, Maryland and President Barack Obama’s home state of Illinois, according to projections after polls closed in most of the United States.

Biggest winner: Chris Christie. At chairman of the Republican Governors Conference, Christie worked to raise money and campaign for both likely winners and for dark horses. They all won. Christie immediately became the frontrunner for President in 2012

Biggest losers:

Barack Obama. The one campaign he worked on was his buddy’s in Maryland. Maryland’s as blue as a Marine’s dress pants, and Obama’s law school pal, Anthony Brown lost.That red stripe on those on those Marine dress pants got wide, fast.

Abortion. Wendi Davis corralled a lot of Democrat cash in a race to make abortion an issue. She did. And she lost.Big:

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Turns out the only late term abortion in Texas was Wendy Davis’ campaign.

Hillary Clinton. Hillary campaigned for a dozen losers. I’ve said for two years I don’t think she’ll run for president. She’s a terrible campaigner, and she’s more powerful as king-maker. Now, she’s almost limited to that role.

BarackObama. Obama a two-time loser? Of course. Illinois elected Republican Bruce Rauner to end an embarrassing stretch for the Land of Lincoln. Obama’s home state (politically) is Illinois, where the President still enjoys a 50 percent approval rating. But Rauner beat incumbent Pat Quinn.

This election means the GOP nominee in 2016 will rise from the ranks of governor. Christie has the best shot. But don’t count out Scott Walker.

I’m sitting at Reagan National Airport waiting for my flight home. I just spent 24 hours meeting the people who keep America free. Well, besides the people in uniform. It’s the Heritage Foundation’s donors and leaders. It’s Heritage Action and its Sentinels.

It’s decidedly NOT the ruling class, the two big parties.

I had the high privilege of sharing a panel with 14 people who work a lot harder than I do. People like Jim Duncan of North Carolina and Kevin Kookogey of Tennessee. These are people who abandoned the safety and comfort of anonymous recline to work on the front lines of our war for America’s future.

Heritage Sentinels–over 9,000 strong–make life on Capitol Hill a little less comfortable for members of Congress. Al French told a story of one Congressman who told a Sentinel, “I’ll have to look up that bill. I don’t know much about it.” The Sentinel said, “What? You voted FOR the bill two days ago!”

The Sentinel program, and Heritage Foundation’s great research and communications, couldn’t happen without donors. Heritage turns down big dollar offers from corporations and chambers who hope to influence Heritage toward the established ruling class. While principles make for great headlines, they also force Heritage to rely on generous private donors. Like my new friend Sylvio.

Sylvio made my trip a blast. He’s a fellow Catholic, originally from Detroit. He worked in the auto industry and retired to Mississippi. One of the most pleasant humans I’ve ever met, and a man who deserve our thanks.

Mostly, I want to thank my Heritage Action leaders: Ben Evans, Jessica Anderson, Russ Vought, and Michael Needham. They all could make a lot more money and live more comfortable, quiet lives outside of the political nightmare of Washington. But they put America’s future before their immediate comfort. The enable and empower the largest grassroots community organizing force in American politics, and future generations should know their names.

Apathetic Democrats

Many political observers blame Democrat voter apathy, particularly among African-Americans. The black vote that swelled in 2008 and 2012 with Obama on the ballot shows signs of deflating in 2014 as it did in 2010.

Barack Obama can’t campaign for anyone. When he showed up to support long-time friend Anthony Brown in Maryland last week, the crowd left. Even dedicated Democrats are sick of his shtick.

But this is the most corrupt White House since Nixon. It’s unlikely Obama will let the Senate fall without firing all his ammo. And the only arrow left in the Democrat’s quiver could land in the heart of St. Louis County.

Race and Sex Division Is All They Have

The Democrats rely on race-baiting and sex-baiting. With polls showing women favoring Republicans this year, the sex arrow is broken. That leaves race.

The Justice Department has been leaking evidence from its investigation into Michael Brown’s shooting for a week. It even released the official autopsy to the New York Times. There must be a reason. And that reason could be the election.

In Obama’s cynical mind, he might decide the best chance to energize African American voters is to announce that the Justice Department will not prosecute Darren Wilson, the Ferguson police officer who shot Michael Brown. The White House would then let career race-hustlers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton blame the Supreme Court’s past rulings on deadly force by police officers..

Voter Intimidation

If the DOJ releases such a statement, look for groups like the New Black Panther Party to descend on key states with close Senate races. They’ll try to use intimidation to drive down turnout while the Democrats’ vaunted election-stealing machine fires up to manufacture a margin of victory for their side.

Is this a cynical view? Yes. But not nearly as cynical as the Obama White House.

From about 1978 until the Monica Lewinsky fiasco, the GOP was called “the party of ideas.” I miss the ideas.

William F. Buckley helped. Buckley liked big ideas and smart people. He liked politicians who gave legs to great ideas and governors with the guts to experiment. Governor Ronald Reagan appeared on Buckley’s Firing Line shortly after the Gipper became California’s governor. Reagan talked about many ideas he was trying or hoping to try. My favorite: allowing states to keep a portion of the federal taxes and fees generated within a state instead of cycling everything through Washington’s bureaucracy.

The Idea People

Jack Kemp, the former congressman, HUD secretary, and football quarterback, championed all sorts of ideas. Some of Kemp’s ideas offend a few modern Tea Partiers, but he at least promoted ideas and tests. He gave the Republican Party (and conservatism) an idealistic, enthusiastic, and optimistic face. Buckley called Kemp “America’s leading enthusiast.”

How many of those exciting ideas from the 80s and 90s began with a Heritage Foundation paper? All of them? Most? Well, Heritage is still there, still pumping out ideas. And Heritage has add Heritage Action to help activists push ideas upon their members of Congress.

What Are Ann Wagner’s Big Ideas

I wonder, though, why so many modern Republican politicians avoid ideas like the plague? Take Rep. Ann Wagner. She’s interested in issues, or so she says. I believe her. She’s very interested in issues involving potential donors. Or issues that Republican pollsters discover a demographic for.

Ideas, though, are another matter for politicians like Wagner. Ideas don’t come with checks. Ideas can get you into trouble. Ideas demand hard thinking to plan and explain, and hard work to promote and execute. Why do all that work when you could be raising funds from wealthy donors, instead?

Sometimes, big ideas become the topic of discussion at candidate forums. Jack Kemp loved promoting his ideas with people unlikely to jump aboard, including Democrats. Or communists. Or anyone willing to discuss big ideas. I can’t imagine Kemp ducking a candidate forum or a debate.

Rep. Ann Wagner, on the other hand, avoids idea sharing, future planning, or philosophical discussion. Wagner won’t show up at a candidate forum with her opponents, Libertarian Bill Slantz and Democrat Arthur Lieber. Mrs. Wagner, apparently, will be busy knocking on doors during the candidate forum next Wednesday, October 22. Those doors, according to her official schedule, are in northern Virginia, where Wagner will be raising money for a candidate there.

When I was young and Republican in the 1980s, the ideas attracted me. Jack Kemp’s enthusiasm and William F. Buckley’s brilliance and Ronald Reagan’s lovable charm made my job of attracting other young voters easy. I remember the 1987 Low Country Stump Days in Charleston, SC. I was surrounded by people in their twenties. We were guided by retirees, but we knew we were the stars because we were young and conservative and full of ideas–ideas we borrowed from Heritage and Buckley and Kemp.

Conservative Names | Liberal Names

I’m not so sure the left has any monopoly on ideas today. Democrats mostly just want to keep blacks poor and Hispanics isolated so that government programs look like a good deal. What bothers me is that so many Republicans treat Fortune 500 companies the same way Democrats treat the poor. It’s all about creating dependency. It’s all about addicting people to government largess. It’s all about becoming the arbiter of happiness so people have to grovel.

The left, though, does a good job of pretending to have ideas. They use photoshop, videos, comedians, and actors to make cynicism feel like philosophy. Cynicism sounds original and smart to a kid.

The liberal names generally sound like a group of women in their late 20s; the conservative names sound like the members of a large bluegrass band from the 1930s.

In the 1980s, I was still playing the banjo, so Ms. Miller’s characterization is only 50 years off.

Young people have a life to look forward to. They’re not so interested in holding onto what they’ve got, because don’t have anything except a ton of debt. They want ideas. They expect those of us who’ve lived to provide some of those ideas.

The reason I can’t vote for Ann Wagner isn’t because she doesn’t go to candidate forums; it’s because she wouldn’t have anything to talk about if she did.

The candidate forum will be held at 7 pm, October 22 in the Meramec Community College Student Center, 11333 Big Bend Road. This is a great chance to meet a candidate with ideas, Bill Slantz.